How to Handle "Griefers" and Troublemakers on UC's Virtual Campus
As with any community of people, in physical or online space, it is inevitable that you will run into someone who is determined to disrupt the experiences of others.
A "griefer" is someone who intentionally (and usually repeatedly) acts in a manner that degrades others' online experience, by harassing, distressing, or otherwise tormenting them. Examples of griefing include delivering abusive language, intentionally bumping others' avatars, and shooting weapons in a non-RP (Role Playing) zone. See the wikipedia entry on griefing at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Griefingfor more information.
When you encounter someone causing trouble on UC's Virtual Campus in Second Life, it is important to take certain steps and to respond calmly, professionally, and not be drawn into being provoked yourself.
Know What the Rules Are Before Trying to Enforce Them
Before you can be prepared to deal with any incidents, you must be fully familiar with the policies that govern users of Second Life and users of the University of Cincinnati Virtual Campus in Second Life. Be sure to thoroughly review the following policies.
University of Cincinnati General Policy on the Use of Information Technology - Access to the University of Cincinnati island or islands in Second Life is conditional upon affiliation with the University of Cincinnati or the information provided when the user created a Second Life account through our website or Linden Lab's website or both. All applicable university policies, such as the General Policy on the Use of Information Technology (http://www.uc.edu/ucit/policies/infotechuse.html) and the Student Code of Conduct (http://www.uc.edu/conduct/Code_of_Conduct.html), also apply to activities on the University of Cincinnati island or islands in Second Life. By visiting the University of Cincinnati island or islands in Second Life, users agree to abide by all applicable university policies while visiting this virtual space.
UC Second Life Project Code of Conduct - Users are also subject to the Code of Conduct policy as outlined on the UC Second Life Project website at http://homepages.uc.edu/secondlife2/?page_id=132.
If possible, student staff should not handle disruptive behavior or activities on our virtual campus. Instead, seek out a full time staff member and inform him or her. If no full time staff member is online, consult the phone list and try to reach a staff member on his or her cell phone or home phone. You can also e-mail the alias and let the team know a disturbance is ongoing.
If you cannot reach a full time staff member in a reasonable amount of time, continue to the next step.
Go Into It with the Right Attitude
Always remember that you are a representative of the University of Cincinnati and the University of Cincinnati Second Life Project team when you interact with any visitors on our campus. You must remain calm and professional at all times, no matter what the situation may bring. Responding angrily, using emotionally loaded words, or getting upset is never appropriate. Indeed, every interaction you have with someone should be recorded and documented and you certainly want to make sure what you do and say is above board and in compliance with all university policies, so stay calm, cool, and collected throughout the incident.
What alerted you to the problem? What behavior or activity did you observe? What are the names of the avatars who are on the island at the moment, or who are owners of objects you see? Document not just with text, but also with snapshots where possible. Keep a clear record of every action you observe and every action you take in attempting to resolve the issue. Failure to properly document an incident may be cause for disciplinary action.
Investigate the Situation
Your first job after starting the incident report and documenting your initial observations is to investigate further and ascertain what is actually happening.
Don't assume ill intent until you've fully assessed the situation.
We must not make assumptions that someone is intending to cause trouble when in fact the individual could be having technical problems, be unaware of the impact of his or her actions, or be confused about what is and is not appropriate behavior in Second Life. For example, a female faculty member reported that a user had a male avatar running around the campus without any clothing, which she assumed was intended to harass women on campus. In fact, the offending user had accidentally removed his clothing and was looking around campus for help materials to figure out how to get dressed. He was almost as traumatized as the faculty member by the experience!
Look for other evidence beyond what was reported or what you initially observed.
Have you checked all of the regions of our campus to see if the issue is an isolated incident or more widespread? Are there objects or artifacts of griefing in multiple locations? Who is the creator and owner of the objects and where were the objects found? Be sure to document your findings with SLurls, snapshots, and detailed descriptions.
Other fact finding tools include:
Profiling users - you can find more information about a user by searching for his or her username and looking at the profile.
About Land Menu - Check the land settings for each affected parcel to see what permissions are set on the land. If you have the group role ability, you can also check to see who owns any prim on a particular parcel.
Object Inspect - Right-click object > Object Profile > Details to discover when an object was rezzed or created.
E-mail Statistics - Check the secondlife@uc.edu e-mail alias to find records of when a user entered or left our virtual campus.
After performing a thorough investigation of everything you can observe based on these steps, complete your documentation and e-mail the team with a full report for a full time staff member to address as soon as possible.
If the situation is ongoing or the problem is disrupting class or other activities on our campus, try again to contact a full time staff member before proceeding. If a full time staff member still cannot be reached, continue to the next step.
Contact the user suspected of improper behavior
If the user is online and still located on our campus, contact the user via IM and calmly state the issue, problem, or concern, cite the policy being violated by the improper action, and give him or her an opportunity to respond or explain the situation.
If the explanation is satisfactory (i.e., technical problem, script gone wild, etc.) - provide assistance to help resolve the issue.
If the user does not respond or responds abusively, file an Abuse Report through the Help > Abuse Report menu in the Second Life viewer. Note that a screenshot will be automatically generated when you file the report, so it would be helpful to have the following items open on your screen:
Camera focused on the person suspected of causing the disturbance or the result of the disturbance (prims, graffiti, etc.)
If focused on an object, right-click edit the object and have the edit menu open on the General tab
Have the person's profile open on your screen
Have any IM window or other chat log open on the screen
After filing the Abuse Report and producing snapshots and documentation for our own incident log, go ahead and clean up any items, prims, spam, or scripts using the Return Items button in the About Land > Objects menu. If you do not have permissions to do this, document in your report where such clean up needs to take place.
Take Other Actions as Necessary
If you need to interact with Linden Lab or other members of the Second Life community to deal with the issue, you may do so, but keep a record in your report of all conversations and actions taken. As soon as possible following the incident, speak with your supervisor to debrief and explain what happened and what actions you took to resolve the problem.
For more information about griefing, see the links below:
How to Handle "Griefers" and Troublemakers on UC's Virtual Campus
As with any community of people, in physical or online space, it is inevitable that you will run into someone who is determined to disrupt the experiences of others.
A "griefer" is someone who intentionally (and usually repeatedly) acts in a manner that degrades others' online experience, by harassing, distressing, or otherwise tormenting them. Examples of griefing include delivering abusive language, intentionally bumping others' avatars, and shooting weapons in a non-RP (Role Playing) zone. See the wikipedia entry on griefing at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Griefingfor more information.
When you encounter someone causing trouble on UC's Virtual Campus in Second Life, it is important to take certain steps and to respond calmly, professionally, and not be drawn into being provoked yourself.
Know What the Rules Are Before Trying to Enforce Them
Before you can be prepared to deal with any incidents, you must be fully familiar with the policies that govern users of Second Life and users of the University of Cincinnati Virtual Campus in Second Life. Be sure to thoroughly review the following policies.
University of Cincinnati General Policy on the Use of Information Technology - Access to the University of Cincinnati island or islands in Second Life is conditional upon affiliation with the University of Cincinnati or the information provided when the user created a Second Life account through our website or Linden Lab's website or both. All applicable university policies, such as the General Policy on the Use of Information Technology (http://www.uc.edu/ucit/policies/infotechuse.html) and the Student Code of Conduct (http://www.uc.edu/conduct/Code_of_Conduct.html), also apply to activities on the University of Cincinnati island or islands in Second Life. By visiting the University of Cincinnati island or islands in Second Life, users agree to abide by all applicable university policies while visiting this virtual space.
UC Second Life Project Code of Conduct - Users are also subject to the Code of Conduct policy as outlined on the UC Second Life Project website at http://homepages.uc.edu/secondlife2/?page_id=132.
Linden Lab's Terms of Service and Community Standards - Users are also bound to follow Linden Lab's Terms of Service (http://secondlife.com/corporate/tos.php) and Community Standards (http://secondlife.com/corporate/cs.php) and any other policy that Linden Lab implements.
Find a Full Time Staff Member
If possible, student staff should not handle disruptive behavior or activities on our virtual campus. Instead, seek out a full time staff member and inform him or her. If no full time staff member is online, consult the phone list and try to reach a staff member on his or her cell phone or home phone. You can also e-mail the alias and let the team know a disturbance is ongoing.
If you cannot reach a full time staff member in a reasonable amount of time, continue to the next step.
Go Into It with the Right Attitude
Always remember that you are a representative of the University of Cincinnati and the University of Cincinnati Second Life Project team when you interact with any visitors on our campus. You must remain calm and professional at all times, no matter what the situation may bring. Responding angrily, using emotionally loaded words, or getting upset is never appropriate. Indeed, every interaction you have with someone should be recorded and documented and you certainly want to make sure what you do and say is above board and in compliance with all university policies, so stay calm, cool, and collected throughout the incident.
Document, Document, Document
As soon as you notice a disturbance occurring, begin documenting the situation on the Griefing Incident Page on the UCSL Team Wiki at http://ucslteam.wikispaces.com/Griefing+Incidents.
What alerted you to the problem? What behavior or activity did you observe? What are the names of the avatars who are on the island at the moment, or who are owners of objects you see? Document not just with text, but also with snapshots where possible. Keep a clear record of every action you observe and every action you take in attempting to resolve the issue. Failure to properly document an incident may be cause for disciplinary action.
Investigate the Situation
Your first job after starting the incident report and documenting your initial observations is to investigate further and ascertain what is actually happening.
Don't assume ill intent until you've fully assessed the situation.
We must not make assumptions that someone is intending to cause trouble when in fact the individual could be having technical problems, be unaware of the impact of his or her actions, or be confused about what is and is not appropriate behavior in Second Life. For example, a female faculty member reported that a user had a male avatar running around the campus without any clothing, which she assumed was intended to harass women on campus. In fact, the offending user had accidentally removed his clothing and was looking around campus for help materials to figure out how to get dressed. He was almost as traumatized as the faculty member by the experience!
Look for other evidence beyond what was reported or what you initially observed.
Have you checked all of the regions of our campus to see if the issue is an isolated incident or more widespread? Are there objects or artifacts of griefing in multiple locations? Who is the creator and owner of the objects and where were the objects found? Be sure to document your findings with SLurls, snapshots, and detailed descriptions.
Other fact finding tools include:
After performing a thorough investigation of everything you can observe based on these steps, complete your documentation and e-mail the team with a full report for a full time staff member to address as soon as possible.
If the situation is ongoing or the problem is disrupting class or other activities on our campus, try again to contact a full time staff member before proceeding. If a full time staff member still cannot be reached, continue to the next step.
Contact the user suspected of improper behavior
If the user is online and still located on our campus, contact the user via IM and calmly state the issue, problem, or concern, cite the policy being violated by the improper action, and give him or her an opportunity to respond or explain the situation.
If the explanation is satisfactory (i.e., technical problem, script gone wild, etc.) - provide assistance to help resolve the issue.
If the user does not respond or responds abusively, file an Abuse Report through the Help > Abuse Report menu in the Second Life viewer. Note that a screenshot will be automatically generated when you file the report, so it would be helpful to have the following items open on your screen:
Paste an exact copy of each item of the Abuse Report to your documentation on the UC Second Life Griefing Incident log.
Clean Up Litter or Spam Prims
After filing the Abuse Report and producing snapshots and documentation for our own incident log, go ahead and clean up any items, prims, spam, or scripts using the Return Items button in the About Land > Objects menu. If you do not have permissions to do this, document in your report where such clean up needs to take place.
Take Other Actions as Necessary
If you need to interact with Linden Lab or other members of the Second Life community to deal with the issue, you may do so, but keep a record in your report of all conversations and actions taken. As soon as possible following the incident, speak with your supervisor to debrief and explain what happened and what actions you took to resolve the problem.
For more information about griefing, see the links below:
http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/User:Fr43k_Paine/Dealing_With_Griefers
http://www.secondlifeupdate.com/rants-and-ramblings/video-second-life-griefer-practices-his-griefing/
http://www.secondlifeupdate.com/rants-and-ramblings/video-second-life-griefer-practices-his-griefing/
Chapter 7 Self Assessment
Continue to Chapter 8 - Advanced Building Topics